This invention relates to food processing machinery, more particularly packaging machines such as stuffing machines of the type which make sausages and similar stuffed meat and stuffed food products, and most particularly, to a stuffing machine incorporating a stuffing horn turret assembly and casing brake.
Sausage making and the making of similar stuffed meat and food products have become highly automated. As a result of significant, valuable research in the United States, a variety of machines have been successfully developed for the automated and semi-automated production of stuffed sausages, meats, and foods. One such machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,142,273 issued Mar. 6, 1979 to Robert W. Gay and assigned to Rheem Manufacturing Company, New York, N.Y. In a machine such as that disclosed in the identified patent, sausage material is pumped from a vat to a stuffing horn turret assembly. The assembly has multiple stuffing horns, and sequences the horns through servicing, stuffing and sausage end clipping positions. Shirred casing is applied over the end of a stuffing horn in the servicing position, and in the stuffing position of the horn, the casing and material pumped to the horn leave the horn simultaneously, through a casing brake. The stuffing material fills the casing and the casing maintains the material under slight pressure. The casing brake permits the casing to exit under uniform tension. Adjacent the casing brake, a clipping mechanism intermittently acts to void the casing past the brake and clips the stuffed casing, to define the end of an exiting product and the beginning of the next product. A representative, highly desirable clipping mechanism is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,926 issued Jan. 11, 1977 to Clyde R. Velarde and assigned to Rheem Manufacturing Company, New York, N.Y. The exiting product exits onto a discharge tray.
Another notable machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,945 issued on June 30, 1987 to Alfred Evans et al. and assigned to Tipper Tie, Inc., Apex, N.C. In the machine of the identified Evans patent, a mechanism is provided for movement of the casing brake, to intermittently relieve tension on the casing during clipping of product. While the machines of U.S. Pat. No. 4,142,273 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,945 have proven highly desirable, significant opportunity has existed for improvement.